The first and most important thing you need to understand
before everything else is how memory works. The most common analogy that I've heard when it comes to the human mind is about the way a computer stores data.
But as much as I've heard this analogy, and as much as you’ll probably hear it
too, it is completely wrong. Now, let’s look a little at how a computer stores
data: every piece of information has its part of memory that can
be accessed through an index. If you don’t know the index, you need to apply
a “brute force” approach, which basically means that you’ll have to look
through every single file in order to find what you were searching for – we say
that this is a content-blind system. The human brain, though, is as unlike this
as possible.
Human memory uses another kind of approach. To put it
simply, the system that stores the data is exactly the system that also looks
for it, which means that the information in your brain is not stored by
indexes, but rather by association. Every new thing that you learn is made up
of things that you have learned before, and it is also connected to things that
can seem, at first, unrelated. So you can recall information by thinking about
anything related to what
you want to recall. This is called a content-addressable system. An implication
of this kind of system is the proverb “practice makes perfect”. See, learning
takes place through the synapses of your brain – the junctions between neurons.
Those synapses transmit information between your neurons. And as information
passes through a synapse, the transmission will be easier to accomplish. This,
in other words, means that the more you do something, the easier it will be the
next time.
It is also important to know that forgetting something doesn't mean that it’s gone away completely. Any data that is forgotten leaves
traces in your brain – which is why relearning something is a lot easier that
learning it the first time.
Now that we know how learning actually takes place, it is
a lot easier to “hack” it. Since learning depends on associations, we can infer
that everything you do when you learn is associated with what you’re learning
in the first place. Now, because of this, it is important to try to use all of
your senses when you learn something. For instance, if you’re, say, studying
for a biology exam, you should read out loud what you’re learning (sight +
hearing), while chewing gum (the same kind you’ll chew during the exam –
taste). To add a plus, you could spray yourself with the same perfume you’ll be
wearing the day of the exam, preferably one you don’t usually wear.
Okay, let’s look a little at what I just said. The first
two things are pretty obvious – reading out loud. But, you might ask, why the
hell should you chew the same kind of gum, or wear the same kind of perfume?
Well, the taste of the gum and the smell of the perfume trigger the memories
you have from when you have tasted/worn them before. Those two little things
were also “learned” while you were actually focusing on the biology paper. And
so, your brain has assimilated three things at the same time: the
biology lessons, the smell of the perfume, and the taste of the gum.
Considering the way data is stored in our brains, it is clear that those three
things were assimilated together, rather than separately. So, when recalling
one, you’ll remember the others. And while it is useless to recall the taste of
the gum or the smell of the perfume while you’re reading the lessons again, it
is very useful to remember your lessons by smelling the perfume and tasting the
gum.
There’s a famous psychology experiment that proves
exactly what I just said. Divers were asked to learn lists of words – some
under water, and some on docks. Then, they were tested, either on the docks, or
underwater. Those who scored highest were the ones who were tested in the same
situation in which they learned the material (tested on docks if learned on
docks, or tested underwater if tested underwater). Those who switched contexts
(tested underwater if learned on docks, for instance), scored substantially
lower than the others. This demonstrates the automatic encoding of context
alongside information.
End note:
When I first read about what I talked about in this
article, I thought it was a little useless to actually try the whole gum and
perfume thing. But after reading some books on neuroscience and the psychology
of the mind, and I finally understood how memory and learning work, and I
finally tried it, I can guarantee that it actually works. It is a lot easier to
remember things if you try to learn “in context”. Understanding how your brain
works can help you in numerous ways, which is why I decided that, once in a
while, when I have the time, I will an article describing all kinds of “hacks”
that I believe are vital in order to take full advantage of your brain.
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